"The Wire" on HBO

from the piratebay comments (grain of salt):

mpinphilly at 2008-01-03 00:28 CET:
First, major props to Warcloud on the massive re-up.
Second, peoples, from what I understand by reading other online fora, HBO gave Eps 1 and 2 (Eps 51 and 52 in the overall count of Wire Eps) on one screener DVD and Eps 5, 6, and 7 (55-57) on another. I.e., they didn't give out Eps 3 and 4 (53 and 54). Smart, arguably, but this means it's unlikely we'll see 3 and 4 until they air, or at least go "On Demand" the Monday prior to airing (they should be available On Demand Jan 14 and Jan 21). So all you peoples need to decide what to do. I'm waiting until I see 4 to move on to 5-7...

I'm waiting until I see 4 to move on to 5-7...

not if you're one of the many people seeding 5-7, i guess!

the sound quality on ep 01 is atrocious

Freakonomics blogger watches episode 1 with real bangers:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire/ spoilers obviously, with ep2 spoilers in the comments.

there are spoilers for everything that's been leaked in the comments

don't know if this ever got linked but here's the full interview
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200708/?read=interview_simon

yay another useless comparison to dickens.

high fidelolity

I like this bit:

My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.

I have a hard time taking Simon's 'the decline of journalism' as seriously as other topics covered by the show - when was this golden age of respectable newspaper coverage?

The tradition is more tied up in partisanship and yellow journalism and Wm. Randolph Hearst isn't it?

no, simon is describing modern journalism, aka the "tradition" of 20th century non-partisan journalism, eg. lippmann, dewey, etc.

i dont know that its the absence of "nonpartisan" journalism--the hero editor at the wire's sun is pretty clearly partisan and wants his articles to reflect that--so much as it is the (apparent) shift of newspapers from defending the interests of "the public" against the gov't and corporations to defending the interests of those corporations and publishing weepy stories about kids in wheelchairs that is meant by "decline of journalism"

this isn't directly related to the wire, but it should ring a bell: sociology prof hangs out with charismatic leader of a crack-slinging gang for a year. sociology prof leads the gang for a day. pretty interesting.

talk version of that: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/29

no fair dropping Freakonomics content without warning

yo could this be the thread where stick-the-mud week-by-week viewers of s05 convene? apparently the dedicated series five thread has been contaminated w. spoilerz?

^^^ That please.

start of e01 wasn't really doing it -- they have to reintroduce everyone -- and also the pre-credits bit was taken directly from 'homicide: lots', only with added Cynicism About America. but then, probably when carcetti fronted on daniels and the states attorney, or whens sergei came up, it was back to awesomeness.

wtf with the fire huh. lost-esque.

"puts the b in subtle" from herc = ha

I'm on-board for keeping this a spoiler-free (ie, realtime, regular HBO schedule) feed. IE, we can talk about s05e02, which aired today.

Have to say, the stuff with McNulty at the end was really, really baffling and disappointing. Felt like such a dumb, unjustified, out-of-character act, and felt dangerously like a jump-the-shark moment (albeit v late in the series!)

goddamn, it's hard to watch Bubs now

mcnulty's plan seems silly. maybe part of it is that he's drinking all the time. i guess hamsterdam was silly too

i think we should all applaud milo for being brave enough to share.

fuck xpost

gramophone otm the mcnulty stuff is really bad.

pretty lame - I suppose that's the setup for the big media frenzy. What a tangled web we weave, oooh.

Where's Omar?

mcnulty's all self-destructive and hates the system, his attempts at getting the case re-opened make sense in the context of his character. i figure he thinks he's smarter than everyone else though this will likely be the end of him. lol @ avon playing the west side 4 life card with marlo. i wonder if avon is setting up marlo somehow.

I thought he was just being a sarcastic asshole to Marlo.

Nah, I think Avon is sincere with that "Fuck those Westside Bitches" line. Marlo showed up for his sentencing, after all, but not Prop Joe or even Slim Charles.

im w/dan he was obv just fucking w/marlo (and getting paid)

he was being an asshole because he doesn't give a fuck but playing at bygones being bygones, i.e. "so what's new with you?" "the game is still the game". also lol @ marlo's non-reaction to the insults of "boris".

it was pretty funny how marlo was being all smooth getting in touch w/serge then he shows up at the prison and gets nothing but grief

uh but marlo totally won that little exchange. (hundred grand notwithstanding.)

one of my friends pointed out that last time we saw avon, really, he was loading up tons of guns to kill Marlo. i am not sure that Avon is as harmless as he looks.

<I>mcnulty's all self-destructive and hates the system, his attempts at getting the case re-opened make sense in the context of his character. i figure he thinks he's smarter than everyone else though this will likely be the end of him. l</i>

uh but EVERY SEASON his "big case" gets shut down, and every season he just breaches the chain of command or does something clever and self-sacrificing (but NEVER anti-justice or "crooked") to ruffle feathers. but in this case he doesn't even TRY to talk to his pet judge, or the press, or anything, he instead puts in motion a vague "serial killer" plotline that may draw attention to the weathered police force but which has no relation to his personal marlo vendetta case, and just seems incompetent and FULL of flaws. i'm so used to lauding the Wire for being smarter than me - and its characters by and large make such canny, but self-interested, decisions. but here's a decision that seems obviously idiotic, and way below mcnulty. it doesn't help him in any specific way, and in the real world it so clearly wouldn't play out right.

uh but marlo totally won that little exchange. (hundred grand notwithstanding.)

sure but for someone who has a whole family killed cause he heard someone maybe said he sucked dik - getting shit on by avon and serge like that mustve been pretty unbearable

i don't think we're supposed to assume what mcnulty did is anything other than obviously stupid and reckless.

this season has started with him in the middle of the lowest point we've seen him: fucking around on beadie, he can't even do po-lice work, drinking and drinking, etc. he thinks he's smart but he's overplaying his hand.

i kinda think his plans gonna work ina lol lookit how fucked up this city is sort of way

this season series has started with him in the middle of the lowest point we've seen him: fucking around on beadie his wife/girlfriend, he can't even do po-lice work, drinking and drinking, etc. he thinks he's smart but he's overplaying his hand.

oh i see what you did there

anyway what i said is true, it's the lowest point because now we can't really even empathize with him as much. we know what he's tossing away after he seemed to finally figure shit out, and now he's lower because he's just an idiot.

did you guys just turn off the tv before they show that "next on 'the wire'" teaser or what?

mcnulty's plan seems silly. maybe part of it is that he's drinking all the time. i guess hamsterdam was silly too

yeah hamsterdam to me is still the least "believable" thing the show has done. mcnulty's thing, yeah it seems like a dont-give-a-fuck breaking point, but otoh selling a serial killer story to the media ("we have 23 bodies and they dropped the investigation!") is not really a bad idea.

xpost -- i watch on demand, do they even show the teaser? i just stop it when it hits the credits.

yeah hamsterdam to me is still the least "believable" thing the show has done.

ever hear of kurt shmoke?

also yes, the teaser is shown on demand as well, after the credits.

yeah but kurt shmoke didn't actually do it. it was the dramatization of it that seemed forced. was still interesting and all, but was the point in the series where i felt its sociological/political agenda most strongly.

(i mean the agenda's always there, which is fine -- i am on board with the agenda -- but usually it's handled a little more subtly.)

that dramatization on a dramatic show just didn't fit, sure.

i am sorry for thinking some parts of the wire are handled better than others. overall i think it's the best show on tv and at least in contention for best show ever. does that make you happier?

relax. i just think people buy too much into the "it's gritty! it's realistic! it turns the cop procedural formula on its head!" conceit that david simon has rather successfully put out there. it's still a tv show, and despite it being better at depicting the "reality" of crime than most, it still has to have some dramatic elements to, y'know, actually be worth watching.

as much as i love the show, i think a lot of the response to it (on this thread, and elsewhere -- see also: nick fucking hornby) has been a little too trusting of the creator's public comments (as much as i like the dude, too). thankfully, the people involved in the show seem smart enough to have some fun with that -- without the people they sometimes mock on the show even seeming to get it (see also: the word "dickensian" showing up in season 5).

I don't watch previews of next week. I don't understand why anyone would, actually.